The Genesis Project (CANCELLED)
by Shard the Gangster Kitty
Summary: Before the Flock, before the School was known as the School, there were the Genesis, the First Generation, the first batch of bio-engineered humans with "gifts" to be created. But then they went rogue. Now they only want to destroy their creators before they could harm anyone else. Follow Vennie and her group's travels in order to stop their scientist creators. Warning: All Ocs
1. Prologue

Seven: that was the amount of bio-engineered kids that stood at the entrance of the research facility that had once been used for experimenting only on animals for man's own purposes. But it wasn't until about a decade or two that the scientists that worked there started experimenting on their own kind.

And those seven were the first and only successful attempts at creating a new race of humans.

At the front of them stood a girl, eyeing the cold steel building with seething hatred, the other six mirroring it in their own faces and actions: fists clenching, tense shoulders, narrowed eyes, and dark scowls.

These kids, all under the age of twenty, had gone rogue from their creator's purposes. They had _revolted_ against them. Not wanting anyone else to face the torture those sadistic, white-coat scientists had once inflicted on the teenagers.

With ease, the girl stepped forward and ripped the metal door from its frame as if it was nothing, throwing it to the side and stepping into the cool white building, staring at the soldiers as they aimed dozens of guns.

And every single one of them was pointed at her.

The whole room was a standoff now, a battle of wills to not move, to hold the enemy's gaze. It was seven highly battle-trained and powerful teenagers against almost one hundred soldiers with guns.

Grinning, the girl turned to her six friends. There was no maliciousness in her gaze; she didn't want to kill these people. But they were in her and her friend's way of freedom of the facility that they had been fighting against for a year or two now.

"Well, what're you guys waiting for?" Her voice rang out in the silent room. "Let's get this show on the road!"

With that, shots fired, not one hitting their target.

The girl had suddenly teleported away, and when she reappeared, a boy with black hair that reached his forehead held her bridal-style behind the army of soldiers.

"Vennie, be more careful and don't get yourself killed, please?" He hissed to her as the leader, Vennie, leapt from his arms and began running at the mass of armed men.

"Don't focus on me, Liam!" She shouted back at him over the gunshots as the battle began to rage all around them as the other five teens began to attack the soldiers, taking them out with their mutant powers. "Focus on the task at hand, defeating this place once and for all!"

And with that, Vennie leapt into the fray, slamming her elbow into the head of one with her superhuman strength, knocking him out with ease and stealing his gun.

Shots were fired all around her as the girl slammed her gun into one man's kneecaps, knocking him down before shooting another, surprised to see her gun didn't have actual bullets, but sleeping darts.

 _So they want us alive, huh?_ Vennie thought before turning to look up at one of her teammates fighting on top of some sort of counter in the lab room, wrestling with two men before grabbing them by their heads and smashing them together.

"Milo, they want us alive, they can't kill us!" She shouted at the boy, and he turned to face her, his short brown hair swishing at the movement before giving Vennie a quick thumbs up before leaping from the counter to join the fight and tell the rest of their team.

Pain exploded in her back as a gun swung into it, forcing Vennie on her knees. She let out an involuntary huff of breath, looking back at the man to see him about to swing the gun at her head and knock the girl out.

"No you don't!" She snapped at him, ducking down as the gun rushed at her. She grabbed it mid-swing and dug her fingers into the metal, crushing it with one hand.

The man gasped when she let go, staring at his now useless firearm before looking back up at her with horror.

"You really are a monster, a freak!" He said with terror, backing up as Vennie rose to her feet and faced him with her amber gaze.

"Exactly, all because of the men who hired you!" She said, her voice light as she flipped her stacked bob blonde hair, the blue tips glowing in the bright lights of the laboratory.

"You've been used by the men who created us." Vennie went on, wincing as the horribly painful bruise on her back began to heal with her fast healing, any broken bones she had knitting together. "They just plan on creating even more of us.

"So I suggest you run and get out of here 'fore the going gets tough." She finished, watching as the man bobbed his head, eyes wide with fear before running away, dropping his useless hunk of metal.

Vennie watched his retreat for a moment before feeling someone touch her elbow; she spun around to see Liam grab her before teleporting into the midst of another fight.

In front of them, battling for her life stood a tall girl with tan skin and long brown locks of hair that bounced as she went invisible for one moment, appearing behind one soldier and knocking him unconscious before getting tangled in another fight.

Beside her was another girl, with pale white skin and hair so light blonde it looked white as she defended her teammate, her icy blue eyes narrowed with concentration as she froze any guard she touched, carefully avoiding their own attacks.

"Where is everyone else?" Vennie asked Liam, looking around to see the soldiers up and fighting had diminished by many, leaving a skeleton crew of their toughest fighters. But Milo and the rest of the group was gone

"It's just me, you, Kaila and Hailey left." Liam said, his gaze forlorn as he explained everything to her between slamming his fist into one guard before knocking another out. "They were shot by some other type of dart, it wasn't a sleeping dart. It- it paralyzed them somehow!"

Before Vennie could even show the horror she felt at losing her teammates and friends, a baton suddenly slammed into Hailey's head at full force. The pale blonde girl stared at Vennie with wide eyes before falling to the ground with a hard _thump!_

"No!" Kaila shouted out as she fell to her knees beside her friend just as Vennie lunged at the man who knocked Hailey out. Her sheer weight and strength as she slammed into him knocked the man to the floor, and she shoved the dart gun into his chest, glaring at him as she pulled the trigger.

Lifting her head, Vennie gasped in horror at what she saw: the soldier's reinforcements arrived; something she was expecting but thought her team was ready for.

Now, they were severely outnumbered, surrounded, and supporting an unconscious member. But Vennie refused to give up, and with a glance at her teammates, she could see that they, too, refused to give up, no matter how much of a dangerous predicament they had thrown themselves into.

The two girls, Vennie and Kaila, stood, and the three friends got into a triangle, facing the circle of enemies they were surrounded by, their gazes filled with determination.

Fighting down the dark power that rose in her chest, threatening to take over and let killer instinct control her body, Vennie let out a loud "whoop" and ran at the circle of men, throwing punches and kicks at anyone she could reach, fending off any attacker and losing sight of her team.

She dodged one man's gun as it swung at her head, and slammed her hand into its barrel, smacking it into his face before ducking under another's fist, causing it to collide with another's face. She slammed into one man, knocking him to the ground before picking him up with her herculean strength and throwing him into the surrounding men, throwing them to the floor and causing others to trip over them.

Getting half a second of rest, Vennie swung her gaze around, searching for her teammates, only to find they were gone.

She was alone in a sea of enemies.

The battle was now over. She couldn't take them on by herself. She had to escape, find a place to rest, and make a plan to save her friends, and get them out of there before any scientist could experiment on them.

Turning, Vennie made a dash for the exit, throwing any enemy near her out of her way before vaulting over a line of them and landing in front of the exit.

She threw one glance at them, seeing them charge after her before running out through the hole she made in the building. She grabbed the metal door she had ripped off and put it in the way as a barricade, knowing it would buy her a little time before-

Bright lights flashed overhead, the whirring blades of a helicopter sounded overhead, forcing Vennie to cover her ears from the painful sound and squint up at the light, seeing two helicopters filled with soldiers hovering above.

Everything clicked in her brain. Why the attack failed, why all of her team was captured with such precision, why she was the only one left.

This was all a trap made by them. And they had fallen right into it.

Panic took over, and Vennie took off into the nearby woods, hoping it wood provide some cover from the helicopters, but they followed overhead, tracking her movement through the tree cover somehow, probably heat sensors.

The only way the teenage girl knew how to avoid heat sensors was to get out of range, or enough cover to block it. But that meant going underground.

Sprinting through the woods, she stumbled upon a tunnel entrance, which was barely big enough for her to fit her body into and hopefully lead down deep enough to mask her from the helicopters.

But there was also the fact she would get trapped down there, the soldiers would find her, and she'd be captured, just like the rest of her team.

Heaving in a breath, Vennie pushed the thought away and crawled down into the tunnel, the inside was dark with little light coming from the entrance hole. It was barely big enough for her to crawl on all fours.

Vennie slowly made her way through the tunnel, feeling the wall grow taller and wider as she went down until she was finally able to stand up and feel her way through the tunnel, wondering where it led to.

Then, she suddenly slammed face-first into a wall made of stone, wincing as she fell back and put a hand to her bleeding nose. But the blood slowed to a stop as her broken nose fixed itself.

A light suddenly flickered, and the whole tunnel was illuminated in white, revealing everything to Vennie.

It was a tunnel, but instead of stone, as she thought, it was steel, and the stone she had run into that blocked her path was actually bulletproof glass.

She had once again fell into a trap of theirs.

Spinning around, Vennie turned and began running back the way she came, only to find the entrance was blocked by a new steel wall.

"No…" She whispered, horror-struck, before pounding her fist into the steel, barely making a dent in it and bloodying her own fist as the skin broke.

All of the sudden, a hissing sound started, and a white gas filled the room she was trapped in. And as soon as Vennie breathed it in, her knees began to weaken as she fell, pounding on the wall as hard as she could, making a tiny hole.

Coughing, she kept trying to break her way out, but the gas weakened her. Her hits became less powerful, less frequent, her eyes fought to stay open, and she breathed less and less.

Then, Vennie's whole form fell to the ground as she went unconscious.

* * *

 **Interesting start to my first full story, right? Introducing the Genesis/ First Generation. Yes, I know that I haven't introduced all of the characters, (the two others in their little band of mutants), because that is for an upcoming chapter. Please like and review, all criticism is welcomed since I want to make this story the best I can. And I plan on updating once or twice a week, depending on how much work I have to do.**


	2. Chapter 1: Lab Rat

Wincing at the painfully bright light above her, Vennie blinked her amber eyes open and immediately squinted, trying to protect her sensitive eyes from going blind.

"Vitals are shown to be normal, heartbeat slightly slower than normal, but that is to be expected. Stamina and strength abilities significantly weakened. Everything is how we expected." A voice said to her right, and Vennie tried to turn her body to face them, but found she couldn't.

Her eyes opened fully at that as she looked down at her body, eyes wide with horror, fear, and humiliation.

She was no longer wearing the clothes she had when attacking the research facility, but they had dressed her in a hospital gown. Her legs were bound to the sides of the metal surface she laid on, leaving them wide open and vulnerable. Her arms were tightly cuffed above her head to the end of the surface.

Normally, she would have been able to get out of this with ease using her super strength, but it seemed to be gone. Vennie felt her physical and mental strength gone as she lay there.

Eyeing the binds on her legs and glancing up at her arms, she was surprised to see the binds were stranger than normal: they were made of some sort of white metal rings with glowing yellow running through the center.

"So I see you've finally awoken." A voice remarked, tearing Vennie's gaze from the binds that held her on the table to the approaching scientist as he smirked at her, resting a hand on a tray that sat beside her head.

The table was filled with all sorts of experimentation knives, syringes, chemicals of all sorts, and scalpels of all sizes. And the bound girl knew that all of those were meant for her.

To confirm it, the scientist took a piece of cotton, pouring some rubbing alcohol on it before pressing it on Vennie's arm, ignoring her futile struggles to escape, smirking maliciously all the while.

"Being created by an independent scientist and…"gifted" to us by him, I thought it'd be best if we did some tests on you specifically that we were never able to do with your creator working with us. " He continued on smugly, his balding head basking brightly in the light before turning away from the table. "But, he _was_ killed in that little battle you and your friends made.

"Now, what exactly _are_ you made of, Venice?" He asked, referring to her real name as he turned back around, holding a syringe filled with some sort of clear liquid, flicking at it before searching her face for an answer.

The only answer he received was a well-aimed spit in his face.

Yelling in surprise, the scientist fell forward, dropping the syringe, which shattered into pieces, and right in Vennie's range. She abruptly swung at him, slamming her forehead into his head, causing the man to cry out in pain and stumble backwards.

Vennie would have reveled in causing him pain before scientists and guards came running at them, some holding her down while others shoved a gag into her mouth.

Recovered from the shock and pain of her attack, the main scientist turned back to the table she lay on, his face flushed with anger and embarrassment, shooing off anyone else he didn't deem necessary before backhanding Vennie, who let out an involuntary gasp of pain.

"Alf, are you in need of any assistance?" A scientist asked her tormenter, Alf, who shook his head, shooting a glare of hatred at the girl who caused the bleeding in his nose before turning back to the scientist.

"No. All I need are guards for now. And-" he paused, snickering as if remembering something. "Bring the gadget I prepared for her."

With that, the scientist nodded and left, leaving Vennie alone with Alf and some guards who held her down, leaving her with the ability to only give the men glares of pure, undeniable hatred.

He prepared another syringe, and before Vennie could do anything to stop him, he stabbed it into the part he had cleaned, letting the clear liquid flow into her bloodstream with a snicker.

Fighting off the men at the immense pain of the syringe, Vennie struggled with all her might, coming close to throwing them off when the syringe came out.

Then a new sort of pain filled her.

It seemed as if a dead weight filled her, her whole body being slowly compressed until she couldn't breathe anymore. The only thing Vennie now felt was panic. All she could do was fight to make herself seem as small as possible, crying out through the gag all under the gaze of Alf as he smirked down at her.

"You can let go now." Alf said, his voice filled with satisfaction as his test subject began fading into unconsciousness from the pain, only to be yanked back into reality as her breath shortened and wheezed. "Nothing she can do about it. Her mutations have weakened, and in this state, there is very little she can do."

He walked up to Vennie, actually laying his hand on her arm as if to be soothing, but his voice was full of sarcasm and patronizing. "There, there. Be a good little lab rat and I'll be gentle next time. But for now, the objects I ordered for you should be here any minute."

True to his word, the door swung open to reveal the scientist, carrying two packages. She handed them to Alf, gave Vennie a strangely sympathetic look as she struggled in her bonds as pain filled her while the drug wore off, then quickly took off, eager to get out of the same room as the balding scientist.

Alf took the packages, opening one to reveal some sort of ring, which was the same color as the bonds that held the girl to the table and glowed the same yellow in the center.

In his other hand… was a red dog collar.

A freaking dog collar.

He attached the band around Vennie's wrist, which immediately tightened so it fit like a glove. Satisfied with that, Alf forced her to tilt her head and placed the collar around her neck, snickering all the while.

"I was thinking that since you've been here, you were basically a dog, forced to do all of our tests on your mutations, lived in a cage, ate the food we gave you from a bowl, we might as well make it official, Venice." Alf said, letting go of her before pulling out another syringe and a remote.

"Now, just to ensure your compliance, I've created this band specifically for you." He said, pressing a button in the middle of it. Immediately, a painful zap of energy went through Vennie, causing her to cry out in pain as it shocked her before falling against the table, panting for breath.

Alf went to the same spot he had put a syringe in her earlier, this time, instead of putting fluids into her body, he drew blood from a vessel with the empty syringe, looking at the sanguine liquid with satisfaction before placing it in some sort of machine.

"It was quite odd, really, how you reacted to those liquids. They were to stir up your blood, your DNA, your mutations, to see how you work. What the good old Dr. Maine, the man who created you, did to make you so adapted, what he used to make you the way you are."

Vennie only managed a glare at him, before wrinkling her nose in disgust at the scientist and the musky scent of the collar he placed on her. She guessed it was actually worn by a dog; most definitely one of the test subjects the jerks here used.

The balding man laughed darkly at the look she had on her face before turning away and waving back at her. "Well, I guess I can leave you on your own for now." He then threw a glance at the soldiers who held her down, which she had forgotten about. "You can leave too, I guess. She will be under control now, I've ensured that."

Suddenly, a weight was lifted from Vennie as the guards quickly complied, following the man out of the room and compulsively wiping their hands on their jeans. The guards certainly didn't seem very eager to touch or be near a bio-engineered kid like her. But that really didn't surprise her; those who didn't expect her to be what she was and found out normally ran away, screaming about some crazy mutant or whatever.

The door then slammed shut, and the lights went off when nothing in the room moved, leaving her alone in the dark. With that, and the pain wearing off from her, Vennie finally shut her eyes, exhaustion taking over her beaten form as she let the warmth of unconsciousness overtake her.

It didn't even feel like a minute of sleep when the alarms blared, lights sprung to their normal painful brightness in her lids. Starting awake from it, Vennie turned her head to the door as scientists and guards slammed it open, rushed in with guns out, and looked around wildly, getting ready to do whatever they were doing.

"Two of the prisoners escaped with one intruder." One guard said hurriedly to a scientist as he trailed after her to the table's side. "We were assigned to guard this one in case the intruder went after her too."

The scientist glanced at the door, her eyes widening before preparing a syringe and some sort of syrup for Vennie, who was watching them attentively.

 _So there are intruders here?_ She wondered, relief and hope taking a hold on her. _Maybe it's Liam? What if he escaped and is saving us right now? If so, then he better hurry or else I swear I'll punch him for being late._ She thought, no longer able to think as the scientist suddenly walked up to her, taking the gag off, pinching Vennie's nose and shoving the syrup down her throat, forcing her to swallow.

Taking her hand from her nose, the scientist then rubbed rubbing alcohol on a spot on her arm and injected a needle in it, the effects working instantly as Vennie began to feel both nauseous and dizzy, her head reeling and the world becoming blurry as the drugs did their job.

But her other senses seemed to be doing better than, as she heard a door suddenly slam open, gun shots sounded, grunts and yells of pain before everything went silent except for footsteps as they made their way to her.

A blurry face came into view, the features undefined, but Vennie felt hands brush over her skin as they undid her binds somehow, literally ripping the collar off, and picked her up bridal-style before rushing out the door, speaking the whole time.

"Don't worry, Vennie. I'm here now. You don't need to worry about them doing tests on you anymore. I found Hailey and Kaila, Milo escaped before things got too rough, even came back to save me when I was first captured right after the battle. We had to wait a bit, and I made Milo stay back, but I was able to save you guys, and now we're leaving. We're getting out of here." The voice said, which Vennie recognized as Liam's as her eyes fluttered shut, the drugs taking full effect now.

"Stay awake, we're gonna get through this, okay?" Were the last things she heard before fainting for who knew how many times that day.

The sounds of pounding footsteps, shouts, and gunfire woke her up as Vennie suddenly threw herself to her feet, only to fall against a wall groggily, her body feeling dizzy as black spots danced in her eyes.

Yet, now that she was on her feet, the sounds were gone. They were all in her head, wherever she was, it wasn't in the middle of a battle.

Blinking the darkness from her eyes, she looked up to inspect the room she was in. It was dark, with the lights turned off and it being night, yet she could make out the details well enough to tell that this was her own room in her own house. Which meant she really was safe and that it _was_ Liam who got her out.

The room was painted navy blue, with wood floors. She kept very little, only a bed, a few books she could easily discard, anywhere, and a "borrowed" computer on the floor by the bed, charging.

She moved from the wall to the door, opening it as quietly as she could, before stepping out of her room and wandering around the small dark house.

Well, it was more like a cabin in the middle of the woods. But it still suited their needs pretty well.

In the living room lay Kaila and Hailey, sleeping on the couches curled up together, burrowed beneath heavy blankets since the lack of heaters made the place freezing. Vennie smiled; glad to know her friends were both safe and not too injured from the fight, only suffering from a couple scratches, cuts, and bruises between them.

Stepping into the kitchen, Vennie was about to open it and grab a soda and maybe some ibuprofen for her hurting head that had been pounding since she woke up. Most likely from all the tests they did on her. The memories came swirling back, making her remember all the horrid things the research facility did to her and her team, before their revolt and after.

She didn't even realize she was clenching the fridge handle until her hands began shaking rapidly. She quickly let go of the fridge, gasping for breath as she stared at her palms. With her strength, Vennie should have been able to easily break off the handle with the force she put on it.

 _So whatever they did to me lasted longer than I thought._ She thought, turning away from the kitchen and silently striding from it, passing the room Liam and Milo shared before pausing in front of the door, opening it, and stepping out as fast as she could.

With that, Vennie ran from the house into the woods, which was barely illuminated by the slowly rising sun. But once again, she didn't care. One of the ups to being a bio-engineered teen was that her senses were better than any normal person's, so the dark wasn't too bad.

Finally, she stopped in front of a thick tree, panting for breath from the long run. Another sign whatever they did to her was still effective: her stamina was _way_ low. She should be able to go like that for miles. That was only one.

Hurling all of her energy into one punch, Vennie slammed her fist into the bark, only to gasp in pain and clench it, staring at her bloody knuckles as the bark cut them. She also broke all her fingers on that one hand.

She silently sat down, staring at her hand as the wound slowly closed and her fingers popped back into place and healed. The process was most definitely slow, but at least her powers were coming back.

The tree also had a hole in it, though not as big as Vennie would have liked, it was a hole nonetheless. She only needed time, and her powers would come back. But for now, the sun was rising even higher. Everyone would be awake by now.

She stood, putting her hands into her pockets and slowly made her way back home, for now, not caring how worried they might be, if they ever checked if she was awake or not.

Maybe Vennie was being whiny, but she deserved it, didn't she? After being captured once again, tested on, and zapped, she needed some alone time.

But, looking at the cabin in the distance. She also knew that time was over. And she once again needed to take over for her team, as she had been doing for a while now.

Vennie let out a sigh, hurrying her steps towards the cabin and her friends to do what she needed: to lead again.

* * *

 **Yeah! A new chapter people! Please like, favorite, review so I know how people feel about this. And thank you to the people who have already favorited and followed me! It really helps to know that people enjoy it.**


	3. Chapter 2: Letting it Out

"There is no way you will get me to go to school, ever." Vennie snapped at Liam, giving him the dirtiest glare she could muster in her state. Which was pretty angry and dirty, considering she had all of her strength back and the thought of going to a school freaked her out.

Once she had gotten back from her walk, Vennie had been welcomed by Kaila, had her health questioned by Hailey, sounding like she was in an interrogation. And taken out to her room to be berated by Liam, saying "she shouldn't be wandering around in the cold in the morning in her condition without him knowing." And then he had the courage to _try_ to send her off to bed.

His attempt was met with her punching him, not as hard as she would have liked, but the message got to Liam. He wouldn't mess with her again.

But now, a few days after she got her strength back and the things they did to her wore off, Liam was once again trying to take control and tell them that they were going to school.

And this was all right after Vennie made the promise to herself to take leadership back into her hands without falter.

Who did he even think he was? Liam had always been supportive of her, not trying to take over! This new version of him clearly angered her. Everyone else noticed and took one tiny step back, except for Liam, he just had his arms crossed as he looked down at her.

"Vennie, we need to hide, recover, and come up with a new plan to take down the creeps who created us before they can harm anyone else." Liam said, stepping forward and looking down at her. "And they'll be searching for us in places like this, somewhere hidden. So, I thought it best to hide in plain sight. We'll change clothes, get fake names, and hide who and what we really are."

Looking up at him crossly, Vennie clenched her fists before speaking through gritted teeth. "I am leader here, don't you think _I_ should be the one taking orders? Or are you suddenly taking charge?"

Tension hung in the air when he never responded, the two having a mental brawl and battle of wills. Normally, she ended up on top. But Liam wasn't backing down, and the two were actually coming close to swinging fists at each other.

Before any action could happen, Hailey shoved them away from each other, stepping between as her pale, icy fingers shoved them away, her cold touch mutation freezing them slightly through their clothes. She spun her head to look at the two calmly in hopes of stopping the fight before it broke out.

"Vennie, we all respect your leadership, _especially_ Liam." She said, earning a huff from the girl, but ignored it and went on. "But you were just tested on even worse than normal, they even put you in a mini coma and shut down your "gifts" for a while. Of course he's going to take control for a bit and let you regain your feet." She said sensibly, trying to reason with her before turning to Liam without awaiting a response from the leader of their group.

"And, Liam, you _don't_ need to take control. If you haven't noticed, we were fine before. Vennie was fine before, and is now. So now, instead of fighting over our fates, let's all _vote_ on what we'll do. The most votes decide, alright?"

Sighing, Vennie looked at the younger twelve years old girl, letting out a small smile at how wise she seemed, being one of the voices of reason in their freak show of a group, no matter how cold she seemed at times.

"Alright, Hailey." She finally agreed with her, looking around to the faces of the rest of their group, resting her gaze for a moment on Liam before going on. "We'll all vote. But you already know mine."

"And mine." Liam put in before earning a "weak" punch from her on his arm, which, with her super strength, was the equivalent of a at least three normal people hitting you in the same exact spot as hard as they could. So, it was pretty hard.

Milo stepped in before Vennie and Liam could get in yet another fight. "I vote not going to school, thank you very much!" He said, moving to Vennie's side and earning a nod of approval from her before they turned to Kaila and Hailey, who looked uncomfortable under their leader's gaze. But with a nod to each other, the two best friends stepped beside Liam.

The decision had been made. They were going to school. They were going to a normal school for normal kids who didn't grow up as experiments or weren't tested on for their entire lives.

The five of them were _so_ going to fit in.

"Fine." Vennie said, hiding the crossness from her voice. She refused to let her team know how much this bothered her. She rounded on Liam. "But, since you were so bright to make this idea, you can decide what school we go to and where we move. Because, if you haven't noticed, our cabin is in the middle of nowhere and not even close to civilization with wifi we probably stole from some kind of army base."

"On it." Liam said, before turning and walking towards his room, where he too had a computer. Once he was gone, she looked over the rest of the group.

"Alright, we also have another focus: we need to regroup with River and Will. Do any of you have any information or clues as to where those two went?"

River and Will: the last two of their group. Vennie hadn't been able to see them once the fight had started, and they certainly weren't at the cabin or the base they had attacked, everyone knew that already. That meant they had fled and never made their way to the cabin, or they were captured and sent somewhere else. But she refused to even consider the latter option. It sent chills down her spine.

"Nothing." Milo said, shaking his head. "We haven't seen or heard from them. They left no trace as to where they went."

Kaila lowered her head, trying to think. "During the battle- the last time I saw River was when she was almost captured and was being dragged away. But Will stopped them and I saw them running. I didn't think much of it at the time; I was too busy fighting to save my own skin. But they were heading towards the exit."

 _Great._ Vennie thought; _that means they really did ditch us or were captured._ A new startling thought snuck in before she could shut it down: _but what would I rather? They get captured, so they're still loyal, or if they ditched us but are traitors to the group?_

These thoughts confused her too much, and she couldn't think of her team like that. They were bound together by experiences, trust, and respect for one another, no one would do that to the rest of the group. River and Will would never try to leave the group to their own devices in a heated battle like that.

Vennie imagined the ten years old lithe brown-haired girl with deep blue eyes, River; and Will: the cheeky nine years old with short, light brown hair that glowed almost blonde in the sun. Those two were so young, but could hold themselves pretty well in a fight against their favor.

"We'll search for them when we move." Vennie finally decided. "They couldn't have gone too far if they got away from the research center's guards.

"But for now, we all need to pack what little we have and rest. It'll be a long journey, seeing as we still need to hijack a car. We won't talk about this anymore, alright?" She asked, looking around at the faces of her team, who all nodded in agreement.

With that, the four of the put their arms out, their fingertips touching the others' for brief moments before they then turned and wandered off in their own directions, Vennie's being out of the door and into the wilderness once again.

She had wandered out in hopes of being able to think to herself in the silence of the woods, save for the birdsong and wild life that resided by their cabin. But as she reached the trunk of her favorite tree: a large burly oaky tree with branches stretching out everywhere, a perfect tree to climb and hide in, she knew she was being followed. Life as a mutant experiment on the run and fighting her creators had enhanced her sense of danger.

With the hair on the back of her neck raising slightly, Vennie spun around, knuckles balled into fists and already getting in a half crouch; a fighting stance. But, when she recognized the form of Liam in front of her, looking almost sad and apologetic, it disappeared and she stood fully, cheeks reddening in embarrassment that she had come close to attacking her own teammate. In a moment, it was gone as she remembered their fight.

"What do you want, Liam?" She asked him curtly, crossing her arms and giving him a pointed look, bitterness clouding her thoughts. She really just did not want him around. She needed time to think and calm down, because, in reality, he had hurt her in his undermining her leadership.

He lowered his head partially, a sigh escaping his lips before speaking. "I want to apologize." He said before lifting his head to meet her gaze. "I know what you're thinking. You may hide it from the rest of the group, but I know that you're hurt, tired of me contradicting you, tired of fighting the scientists -"

"That's where you're wrong." She snapped at him. "I'm not tired of fighting them! I'm tired of _failing_ when we fight them! So many attacks and they all end with consequences! Capture, broken bones, injuries, defeat, you name it! We need to defeat them before they harm anyone else!

"What we faced growing up, tested on over and over again, having strange experiments done to us, growing up as freaks! It's horrible! You understand what I'm saying, so does the rest of the group. Yet you claim to know how I feel about it, when you don't! I can tell you want to know why I refuse to go to school; I can see the questions in your gaze. So you want to know? Fine! It's because it'll be just like the research facility! Only, it won't be as painful. They'll give us vast amounts of information and force us to memorize them, test and quiz us over and over, punish us for little mistakes!

"I don't want that for everyone anymore! I want them to be free of that life! We should all be able to get over the past, live as normal lives as we can get! Go to Disneyworld, Universal Studios, see the world! But no, we can't do that because all of us are haunted- no, hunted by our past, the government, and scientists who wish to perform painful tests on us. And I'm sick and tired of it all!"

Vennie hadn't realized that in her rant, as she spilled all of the feelings she had hidden so deep down even she didn't realize they were there, she had broken into tears, and Liam had wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her into a hug where she continued to sob into his shoulder, mourning all of the bottled up feelings she had finally set free after they just completely shattered her container for them.

"I never realized that's how you thought." Liam said quietly after a while, when she had calmed down enough to let go of his shirt, and now they sat on a thick and sturdy branch of the tree, staring down below their feet at the ground. "You've really taken all of this to heart." He turned his head to look at her. "You don't blame yourself for every failed attack, do you?"

She didn't respond for a few moments, but finally nodded, too exhausted to speak. But Liam went on instead. "We don't have to go to a school, really. I can tell everyone that I changed my mind, and that it's a bad idea. I just thought that it'd give them some sort of sense of a normal life, but I see how you associate a school with our creators."

"Don't." Vennie said, shaking her head before turning to look up at him. "I see what you mean now, and all that emotion clouded my judgment, I didn't think. Especially being used to not being tested on for a year or more, then suddenly being thrown right back into it, it takes a lot out of you, ya know?

"But, I think you're right. And I was just really freaking stubborn. Let's go to school, and I'll try to live like a normal sixteen year old, and you a seventeen year old."

"Are you sure?" He asked her, looking hesitant now.

"I'll be fine." Vennie said, laughing a bit at the disbelief that shone in his gaze. "But don't you dare milk it, or I swear I will use all of my strength to hit you and probably lock you outside and force you to sleep in the cold, even though you can teleport."

Liam gave her a crooked grin, before grabbing her and teleporting from the tree, where they landed, a yelp escaping from her lips as he suddenly _twirled_ around.

"We're going to be slightly normal!" He shouted out as he finally set a dizzy Vennie down, who was smiling at his enthusiasm, even as the other three came out of the house, saw them, and joined in the fun, tackling, roughhousing, just being _kids._

 _Well,_ she thought, looking around at her team while laughing. _So much for never being able to force me to go to school, that's long gone now._ But she was torn from her thoughts as Milo pounced on her, knocking her to the floor before the rest of the team leapt up on her, creating a giant dog pile of bio-engineered mutant kids having fun for once.


	4. Chapter 3: School

A grimace of unease fell on their faces as all five teens stood in front of their new school in some city in Colorado, not that they paid attention. All they knew was that it was about a three hours drive from their cabin by a "borrowed" car. Especially considering that Vennie and Liam, the two oldest of the team, had almost no idea how to drive, and had to work together to keep the thing going straight while everyone else sat in the back.

Now, with some money they had also "borrowed" from an ATM, the bio-engineered kids had paid for uniforms and the little they needed to get into an open charter school, not knowing where they would sleep at the moment. But they had survived on the run for years. They could probably find a tree or roof or sleep in the car.

Suddenly, Hailey reached for Vennie's hand, her cold fingers grasped in the older girl's, who promptly ignored it, seeing as she needed some sort of comfort. It was, after all, their first day of school. All five of them had the right to be nervous. They were to finally interact with normal people, try to fit in like normal people, and while they did it, look for any possible leads on their missing friends.

The place seemed pretty nice, a K-12 school, which meant they could all be together. The grass was neatly cut all around it, a football field behind the school building, a "decent" parking lot and drop off/pickup route that started on the school's north side, and exited out the south side, which then went into the bustling streets. The school itself was colorful enough, with some grey parts, some burnt orange. All in all, in Vennie's eyes the place looked like a happy prison for kids.

"Are you ready for this, guys?" She breathed out to the four others beside her, Hailey silently squeezing her hand as an answer, Liam putting an arm on her shoulder, and Milo and Kaila stepping closer to the whole group. They would be able to do it, they all knew, as long as they had each other.

Bad thing was, most of them were different ages, and so they wouldn't be in the same classes together. Vennie being sixteen, Liam seventeen, Hailey twelve, Kaila thirteen, and Milo eleven, although his short size suggested he was younger than that. River and Will, although they weren't there, were both fourteen, being the only mutants in their group that were the same age meant they were pretty close, though the two were known to bicker quite a bit.

 _River and Will would have been pretty excited to go to school._ She thought, grimacing up at the place before beginning to lead them to the front office, where they would get their schedules and learn their classes. _Well, River would, Will would have refused because its what she wanted._

Quickly pushing the thought from her mind, Vennie stepped into the building, the sudden breeze of air conditioning hitting her as she went through it, looking around the room to see two women behind a large desk, looking up at the five of them behind their glasses like a librarian looking out for trouble.

The five stepped forward to meet the woman, most looking nervous, save for the leader, who tried her best to put on a brave face for everyone, to show them there was nothing to fear. But even her facade melted away when they were given schedules and forced to be apart for the day, with most of them only to be able to see each other for short periods at a time or during lunch.

The school was set up in a certain way, making sure that even though all kids went to the same school, different age groups rarely saw each other or walked the same halls. Kindergarten through fifth graders took up the left wing of the school, sixth through eight stayed on the first floor, at time, they strayed upstairs, and nine through twelve mainly stayed upstairs, but certain classes and the lunchroom were downstairs.

Classes were also timed differently, resulting in the bell ringing multiple times randomly. Anyone in highschool had to wait four periods out of six before going to lunch, middle school only had to wait three, and the younger kids had more classes and ate in class, apparently. Leaving the team glad to know that none of them were that young, since they wouldn't be stuck in a small room, since the younger students only remained in one class the entire day.

"Remember, everyone." Vennie said softly, leaning down to face the younger kids before giving Liam a glance, knowing he didn't need as much of a pep talk as they would. "Stick together whenever you can, whether it's walking in the halls, or lunch, or any other time. We meet here as soon as school ends and get out of here. And try to act a bit like normal kids, alright? We cannot draw any unwanted attention, or anymore than we're already going to get. Got it?"

Everyone gave a nod, and the five put their arms out, the tips of their fingers all touching before they broke apart and began to wander to their first classes, keeping their heads down and walking while holding their books.

Vennie stepped into her first class, Literature and Composition, also known as Lit Comp, to see multiple teens her age setting their books on their desks and sitting on their chairs to face their teacher, a slightly obese man named Mr. Johnson, who didn't seem like a very big threat.

She took a seat beside some kid with short blonde hair and an admittedly cute face, not that she would ever admit it to him. She was pretty sure he greeted her, so she just replied with a quick nod in return and went to her books, opening up to the page written on the board and grimacing as it talked about diagramming or whatever. This was going to be a _long_ hour.

Thankfully, the hours flew by, and Vennie was finally able to rush out of History, glad to finally have an excuse to move around and get out, since she had been fighting the urge to fall asleep ten minutes into the class. Her history teacher was just _too_ boring for his own good, droning on and on about ancient Mesopotamia, which would have been awesome, had he not made it sound like one of the most boring things in the world.

In her eyes, School was one of the dumbest things ever created, seeing as how they were cramming things into her head that she didn't even need to know. Seriously, who would ever need to know the exact date some random guy who isn't even relevant to the present died?

"Hey, you're the knew girl, right?" A female voice asked, drawing Vennie from her thoughts as she turned to see a girl around her age with shoulder-length brown hair and stone grey eyes, smiling at her amicably. "Name's Jess, we're in all the same classes so far. And I think I sit behind you in Math."

 _Right, I've seen this girl before._ She thought, remembering that she was one of the first people to greet her, besides that boy in Lit Comp, Mitch, the cute one. _She seems pretty nice, and so far isn't a threat, I think._

"I'm Venice." She said, stepping forward to get her lunch from some lady behind the counter before turning back to Jess. "But my friends call me Vennie."

The brown-haired girl gave a grin, getting her own lunch and leading her to a table towards the front of the lunchroom, which didn't seem as cluttered or dirty as the other tables, thankfully, since the mutant girl was still nervous around too many people. Thankfully, Jess seemed pretty laid back.

They sat and just talked like normal people, laughing at jokes and getting to know each other. Or, more like Vennie got to know Jess, who got a fake background information about her, with a little bit of truth.

Sadly, the bell rang in the middle of an amusing story Jess was telling about her little brother embarrassing himself in a mall filled with hundreds of eyes, and the two parted to get to their next classes, since they weren't in the same class for the rest of the day.

A look of disgust covered Alf's face as he watched the bio-engineered mutants enjoying themselves in school, acting like they were normal humans that weren't supposed to be living their lives locked up to be experimented on, that they weren't dangerous creatures that weren't created but _born._ He hated seeing them calling themselves normal names, when they were more formerly known as B1D-L for the one who called himself "Liam", B2V-V for Venice, and so on.

They actually thought they could be normal. What kind of fools were they? The experiments would never fit in, how did they not know that? Their only place in the world was to be experimented on to create a new race of humans, to adapt them, to make them better. Instead, they had gone rogue and attacked their laboratories, destroying some, freeing other mutants who were still in the creation phase, stunting any work they got done, and now they were trying to act normal.

"Rogue experiment, you say you have information for me?" Alf said snidely, turning to look at his traitorous companion in the car beside him, watching the security cameras with his face indifferent.

"I'd prefer if you called me Will, thank you very much." The young fourteen years old boy said, pushing his strawberry blonde hair from his face, his face going from indifferent to mildly annoyed. "And I don't know what else I can tell you. You have her blood, like you wanted; you're creating these… _creatures_ with it. I told you of her other side and gave you an idea on how to recreate it in other soldiers. What more can I do to help you?"

"Well, _Will,_ you only spoke of a little bit of this other side, what else is there to know? How else can we harness it? How can we control it? What does it specifically do?"

"It turns those who have the blood in their bodies into something darker, more ferocious. It changes what they look like, once they turn into it, they lose a part of themselves. That is why she always suppresses it, I've only seen her use it once." Will replied mildly, fighting not to show how much the balding man ticked him off.

"Right, right. And what of our newest creation based on the DNA?" The man said, addressing the scientists towards the larger back end of the van where they worked feverishly on the first test subject in order to create what the mutant boy had described.

One scientist looked up, her long blonde hair pulled in a tight bun. "Almost to your expectations, sir." She said curtly and professionally at the same time. "But, I would recommend we test and prepare for a little-"

"That is my call to make, and not yours." The man snapped back at her, silencing the woman before she could finish her sentence. "I want them back soon enough, and with our "friend" here, we can do just that."

Walking along with the rest of the team towards where their van was, Vennie was able to think of the strange experiences she had as a normal human being for that day, and maybe many more to come. Some of it was fantastic, she made friends with Jess, spoke to Mitch a bit more and wasn't too awkward, she hoped, and even got one or two math questions right. But, then there was the fact she already hated school. It was boring, dull, tedious, any word that could show she didn't want to be there, she would use it.

But the younger kids seemed to be enjoying themselves, going on and on in their excitement while she and Liam listened, laughing when they told funny stories, nodded when they told them of what they learned, and simply encouraging them as much as they could.

Finally, they made it to their van that was parked in the parking lot besides a, you guessed it; park. Milo, Hailey and Kaila all slept in the Van's seats, they had decided, while Liam and Vennie slept outside and all of them taking turns to lookout for danger.

"Look how far we've come." Liam said to her when the kids went inside the van to get something to eat they had bought with their ATM money. "We've gone from lab experiments, to rogues fighting our creators, to normal kids going to school."

"It's certainly something crazy, isn't it?" Vennie asked, smiling at him before looking up at the sky. "But, we can't stay like this forever, you know. We can't actually be normal. We still have a lab to destroy."

"Of course. But for now, we get a taste of what normal kids feel like, or at least try to. I don't think we're ever gonna get the full experience."

"Not in this life, no." Was her reply as she leaned against the car and shut her eyes, letting out a sigh of relaxation as he stood beside her, the two just enjoying quiet time together.

Yet, the moment of serene silence was over as footsteps crunched in front of them. Vennie opened her eyes, which widened when she saw a man who looked at them with a certain hunger in his eyes which creeped her out.

He was pretty beautiful, with a male model's face, buff arms, though the hair covering his body kind of hid it. He had long hair that fell to his forehead, and was pretty clean-shaven.

But looking at his eyes… they were red. A deep crimson red, and behind that barrier of calm, she could see calculating darkness. She recognized that look. He wasn't thinking normally. It was complete killer instinct.

"Well what do we have here?" He asked, his voice deep and throaty, like on of a voice actor-ish, as he took a heavy step toward the two and the van.

And as soon as he did, the man suddenly let out a cry of pain and fell forward a bit, his _body_ changing into something more horrifying, like a wolf-man. His hair grew even longer, his skin coarser, and his eyes… they went raving mad. She could see the urge to kill strongly in them.

 _What had they done?_ Was the only thought that ran through her head as instinct then surged through her and she ran forward to meet the next mutant their creators had made head-on.

* * *

 **If anyone has not guessed, yes, the man is an Eraser. The first generation, so while he may be a lot like the one in the books, I'll add my own quirks later on.**

 **Also, sorry this was such a short and lame chapter, not even I am happy with it. It's kind of a filler chapter. And I most likely will redo it, but it's got some interesting parts in it to know for future reference. And, we get to meet Will and learn a bit more about his relationship with River and the rest of the gang. So yay!**


	5. Chapter 4: Uneasy Alliances

"Get in the car and drive as far and fast as you can! Get away from here!" Vennie yelled when she grabbed the wolf-like man, drop-kicking him, where he fell back with a loud "oof!" which gave her time to shout out orders to Liam and the rest of the team as they came out of the van to see what all the commotion was about.

Wordlessly, Liam understood the urgency, and shoved the younger mutants into the car as the man pulled himself to his feet, snarling at her.

"So that's how we're going to play this, huh?" He said to her, and cracking his knuckles, a nasty grin fell on his face as he suddenly swung his fist at Vennie, slamming into her jaw with little restraint. The force sent her flying, and she slammed into the car, some of her bones breaking with a loud and painful _snap_. The breath pulled from her, Vennie could only gasp as she slid to the floor and fell, landing on hot concrete, the agonizing feeling of her bones slowly knitting themselves together absolute torture.

The man slowly stepped towards her, grabbing her by her throat and lifting her easily with one arm, baring his fangs at her with a grin, his gaze filled with contempt as he gazed at her. "Hurts like hell when you're on the other side of the punch, isn't it?" And before she could reply, he hurled her into a tree, almost knocking her unconscious when she hit it.

Her vision blurry, Vennie watched as the van quickly backed up, hitting the man with enough force to hit him to the ground. Tires squealed, and she watched with sadness and relief that they were escaping, driving like mad to get away from the man.

 _And me._ She thought, her heart threatening to break as she watched her closest friends- her _family_ leaving her. Vennie didn't even know when they would ever see each other again.

A foot connected with her stomach, the pain sending her tumbling a few feet back before throwing up her entire lunch and breakfast, her whole body burning with agony at the torture as he beat her without mercy.

"This is all your fault! My mission was to capture all of you and your rag-tag gang! Not just one puny little mutant who has been easily bested by her own blood!"

Through the blurriness of the words, and the ringing in her ears, realization dawned on Vennie as she weakly pulled herself to her knees and looked up at the man. She wiped her mouth and dragged herself upright, standing and fighting off wincing as her bones popped back into place, healing until everything but the minor cuts and bruises were healed.

"The blood they took from me…" Vennie said, staring with horror at him once the healing process was over. "They used it to create… you? Don't they know what could happen? I knew those creeps were insane, but not _that_ crazy!"

He flexed a muscle, which was buffer than a normal man's, unless he was a body-builder that was injected with a mix of her DNA and a wolf's. "There's nothing wrong with _me._ I was created to be better than you, to take you down and replace you with your own powers. I have your brute strength, fast healing, and best of all: killer instinct."

As he spoke, the man was striding towards her, his face calm, save for the malign look in his eyes and the strain and anger in his voice. He suddenly lunged at her, but Vennie was now expecting it, and quickly stepped back before grabbing him by the arm, and using her herculean strength, dragged him and hurled him away from her and towards the park.

"I'm not letting you get the drop on me, ya creep!" She snapped at him, speed walking towards him before he could get up. "You threatened my team, and I will not let anything happen to them. You may have my powers, but I know their secrets, I know how to work with them better than you. I've lived with them my whole life, while my blood was drawn about a week ago, so that mean's you're pretty new. So you have very little idea of what you are now capable of and your weaknesses, don't you?"

As she said this, she grabbed him by his head and slammed it into the cement pathway with little restraint, just enough not to kill him but to knock him out. "One thing is, healing takes up a lot of energy. So that means you're gonna be out for a _long_ time in order to heal." She said once he was knocked unconscious.

Turning, she looked up to see people frozen in their tracks, some taking videos or pictures of them with their phones, or others trying to protect their children.

Already too late, Vennie had forgotten that people went to this park, and now they knew about her, and word would start to spread if the video got all of their dialogue.

"Don't worry, this was all an act, he's perfectly fine! It's just fake blood!" She quickly shouted out, trying to smile at them, but people were already backing up, trying to get away from her and her petty attempts to lie. Some were actually calling the police.

 _Time to go then._ She thought, and grabbing the man who had thankfully gone back to slightly normal, she quickly began to drag him away, wishing she had mutated wings so she could just zip out of there and into the skies where she couldn't be followed and the going was faster. Or, she wished she could teleport like Liam. Either way, they would get her out of the trouble she had now gotten into.

People ran at her, trying to stop her from getting away. Worst part was, they were normal humans who didn't know what they were doing. They only thought something insane was happening. They probably felt the need to fight off the unknown, which made Vennie's heart twinge when she had to slam her fist into one man's jaw when he ran at her, knocking him to the floor instantly.

She grabbed the lupine-man and held him bridal-style before running, her sneakers slamming into the concrete as she made her way from the prying eyes of people and their cameras, no matter how too late it was. The researchers who experimented on her and her team had always tried to keep themselves secret. That meant they would get her out of this mess for their own sakes.

Thankfully, Vennie had great stamina, meaning she could run for hours, save for the time when the drugs they gave her dulled down her mutations, she could go as far as she wanted with only needing to pause a couple times. The only bad part about it was she went through food _fast._ She metabolized so quickly that she had to just keep on eating. The team was a bit like her, except they couldn't gorge down food as fast as her.

 _Just one of my specialties, isn't it?_ She thought almost bitterly after running while carrying the man for an hour, her stomach growling and cramping for about half of it until she finally had to set him down in a thankfully empty dumpster, though she would still be disgusted when she had to pick him out again.

She slammed the top shut, enveloping the man in darkness before wiping her hands on her jeans, which were sweaty after carrying him, then finally listening to her stomach's needs, Vennie wandered off in search of an ATM.

Sitting in front of a fast food restaurant and glad her super strength gave her the power to steal some money from an ATM with a couple of knuckle bloodying punches, Vennie quickly downed her burger, fries, and cheap ice cream cone, all the while drinking a large soda before dumping it in a trash can and heading back to the man.

Too bad, she opened the lid to find him sitting up and rubbing his head, wincing in pain before peering up as the bright light blinded him momentarily. But she gave him an award-winning smile that resembled nothing like the threats and darkness laced in her honeyed words.

"So glad you're finally awake!" She said. "You've been out for hours, so I carried you here to let you rest for a bit. But now that you're up and moving- or close enough to it, let's discuss how you found me, my team, and how I can get back to them and get you out of our lives."

A snarl sounded, then next thing Vennie knew, the man was on his feed and about to leap up and try to make a move to grab her.

Sadly for him, and to her pleasure, she had fast reflexes, which meant just as he was leaping up she could slam the dumpster lid down upon his already aching head, probably giving him a worse headache and maybe a concussion, which wouldn't last too long due to him having her freaking mutated DNA in his blood.

When Vennie opened it again, he was back on his behind and clutching his head, groaning in pain. "I'm so going to kill you for that." He growled around it, only earning a chuckle from the girl, who was _not_ in the mood for his insults, already angry at the fact that he had separated her from her team and family. Also, this jerk ruined their only chance of hoping to be normal!

She took that last part back. They never really had a chance, did they?

"Yeah, here's the thing about that: _I'm_ the one in charge here with the upper hand. You're the jerk who attacked me and threatened my family. And I'm quite perilous when I'm angry. But you should know that already, right? You are, after all, created from my blood and DNA or whatever, right?"

The man gave her a begrudging glare and sat up, before nodding. "Yes. I was fused to your blood and DNA, so to speak, to become stronger and more dangerous."

"And your mission was to attack and capture my team, right? Which failed miserably for you, but was a complete success for me. Well, except for the part that now I've been separated from them and am now stuck with a freak male model gone wrong."

Vennie almost yelled that last part out, completely angry with him when realization fully dawned on her. She really was stuck with him, and far away from her team- her family. And the only hope she had of finding them was at the cabin…

"I can't go back now." He said, taking her by surprise at the… fear and defeat in his voice? "Now that I've failed in your capture, they'll for sure terminate me. They think that because I carry your blood that I'll be loyal to now. I'm basically dead now."

Did her heart twinge at his words? Vennie had no idea. But somehow, some force made her feel bad for the guy, and she actually held her hand out for some reason, feeling numb as he hesitated for a moment, then grasped it. She helped him out, barely grunting at his weight before stepping back warily when he was back on his feet.

As soon as he made to take one step, her fist had connected with his jaw, throwing him back against the dumpster. Faster than she could remember, she had him pinned against it with her foot and was glaring down at him with blazing eyes, her face in a dark scowl as she planted her sneakers right onto his chest.

"Don't you dare think you're getting out of this with a sap story like that." Vennie snapped at him, shoving her face in his, where he actually shrunk back a little at her intimidation. "You're going to help me get out of here, clear my name because normal people think I actually killed you, and then you're sabotaging those creeps in lab coats and driving them far away from me and my family, got it?"

He hesitated for the slightest moment; only earning more force against his chest by Vennie's foot before nodding, save for the dark smirk on his face and the challenging tone in his voice. "You really think you're going to get out of this alive? I'll only do this because it might lead me to a place and time where I can kill you slowly and painfully after the "creeps in lab coats," as you call them, finish testing on you."

"You disgust me." She said, but after a moment's hesitation, she released him and stood straight, looking around the alley they had been standing in. "But now that we've got all that out of the way. Do you have a name? Or do I have to make something up for you as we did for ourselves?"

"VL-1 is what they tagged me as." He said, and was received by a raised eyebrow before he went on. "So just- call me V or L if you want, I don't care."

"I'll stick with L, I think. But now that you have a name, it's time for directions. First thing's first, we're heading to my cabin." Vennie said, glancing at L. "And we need to start off soon, the place is many hours away from here by car. I can't drive, since normally Liam and I worked together to do it. And I don't trust you at all to either help me or drive on your own." She looked up at the sky, watching the sun as it slowly went on its descent downwards. "I can go quite a long time without sleep, and can run for a while. So we'll be traveling for quite a bit in order to get there."

"Do you even know which way to go or even how to get there?" L asked her irritably, which she understood pretty well, since she radiated the same feeling. No one wanted to have just been in a fist-to-fist fight with someone, then immediately forced to team up with them, even after they drove off their only family.

"Of course I do." Vennie said, facing the falling sun and watching it fall towards the distant mountains she called her home. "We follow the setting sun until we end up in the middle of nowhere. The rest is simply knowledge of my surroundings."

A sigh escaped the man. "This is going to be the longest, most annoying journey of my life, isn't it?" He asked her darkly, the small amount of humor in his voice but not his face.

"Totally." She agreed. "We're most definitely going to be at each others' throats. But it'll be worth it once I make it back to the cabin. Hopefully they'll be there, and we can be rid of each other forever. Unless you snitch on us, and if you do, don't expect to be alive for very much longer, got it?"

"Deal." L said, holding his hand out to Vennie, who looked down at it for a moment doubtfully. "But if we actually have to be able to stand each other, we might as well attempt to trust each other."

"Fine." She said, grasping his hand with her own and shaking it. "But don't expect me to go easy on you. I've been running and fighting for my life for a long time. I know what I'm doing."

L just gave her a shrug, looking slightly miffed before turning his head to the sunset. Without a word, the two began their journey to find her family. One bitter about how he was beaten by the same person he was created to beat, and the other annoyed that they had lost their loved ones and now had to go find them, both of them not happy with each other or themselves at all.

* * *

 **Thank you to all those who have viewed my story, reviewed it, liked it, and followed it! It really means the world to me to know that people enjoy it! And thank you so much to all of those who have reviewed and gave me advice and told me just what I need to hear for this story! It makes me really want to write this and work my hardest on it!**

 **L, Vennie her team, etc. belong to me.**

 **Maximum Ride series belongs to James Patterson.**


	6. Chapter 5: Homeward Bound

Why, in Vennie's action-filled life, did everything seem to go the complete opposite of what she wanted? All she wanted was a simple, easy walk to the cabin, which she and L had set out to find. But no, the whole entire universe had a completely opposite goal for her.

Halfway through their journey, everything went wrong. It had started out fine enough, the two calmly making their way up the mountain without too much difficulty. No one stopped them. People just gave them questioning glances from their cars before speeding ahead as they walked alongside the mountain road. Even L refrained from annoying her too much. Or, at least he tried to.

Then suddenly, the wolf-man-Vennie hybrid fell to the ground, crying out in pain and clutching at his head. When she turned around to see what the commotion was, she could only pause in horror as he once again turned into a wolf. Only this time, the transformation seemed even more painful than the last as he struggled, falling to the ground.

Vennie rushed to his side, for some reason feeling fear for her companion, even if hours ago they had been fighting for their very lives. "What's happening?" She asked, eyeing his shaking arms, watching nervously as they grew even hairier than normal.

When he didn't respond immediately, she leaned closer. "What can I do to help?" She asked, only to feel clawed hands grasping at her arm, gripping at them with inhumane strength. She looked at his face, only to be met with eyes glowing darkly, orbs filled with the promise of a threat.

"Where is your cabin?" L asked, his voice hoarse and strained as if he was in a struggle against something much stronger and powerful than he. The arm that wasn't holding hers clawed at the ground below, shredding the long, sharpened nails and cutting skin. Yet, instead of the killer look he sported in his eyes, every other body signal showed he was fighting against that urge.

Vennie, for some reason trusting him, glanced up to see the mountainside on which the cabin rested on, the sun slowly resting above it and outlining the peak. Her face twisted into unease, not even she knew exactly how to tell him directions. She just knew her home and landscape too well. She could memorize the smallest of details and use them as hints to find her cabin. But L couldn't…

"You can't find it on your own." She said grimly, looking down at his writhing form below her. "It's off of all maps, and there are no directions I could give you." She told him reluctantly. "I chose that place because it was so isolated no one would find it."

His fist squeezed her arm even tighter, cutting off almost all blood circulation on the appendage. He grit his teeth, somehow managing to speak without opening his mouth. "Go. Now. I'll find you some way." He said, suddenly letting go of Vennie and allowing relief and warmth to replace the numbness in her arm.

"I'm not going to leave you!" Vennie said haughtily, staring down at him. "I don't just ditch a companion!"

Suddenly, in an almost feral fit of rage, L leapt at her, shoving her back from him. "If you want to go back to your team and live to see them, I suggest you go. Now."

The rage and wildness in his voice was what send Vennie running. He had really turned into that hideous wolf version that she had fought against that first time. Except now he seemed even madder than the first time. The strangeness of it all piqued her curiosity, and glancing back at his form over her shoulder, she knew she would have to ask him when they saw each other again.

But now she had to get away from him. They both seemed to understand that something was happening to L, and they both knew he was dangerous. And for some reason (which Vennie guessed was to find her team) L wanted to keep her alive.

As she ran for her life, she came up with a thought she hadn't come up with earlier. What if she just left him? What if she ran to the cabin, and if her friends were there, get them out and leave L to himself? He wanted to kill her and her family, and she had only really wanted to keep him in check and find out what the scientists were up to. Even a tiny part of her brain felt bad for the man who had been fused with her blood and hoped he would join them. But, in case that wasn't meant to be, why not just leave him? Who cared whether the scientists killed or punished him for not capturing them? L was not Vennie's immediate concern, and she didn't wish for him to be. Her family came first, and that was all that mattered.

Too bad something seemed to be holding her back from doing just that. Something she called empathy. Seeing that look of pain in his face, seeing the torture he was going through, and the fact he was just some mutant experiment like the rest of them, it made her pity him. Vennie could easily connect with him; share the same feelings and memories as him.

And she hated that. She hated the fact she wanted to pity him, to get to know him. And she hated that she was now running away from him like a coward.

As she was running to escape him, she had time to freely think about him. First, they had started out as enemies, fighting each other to the possible death. Then they began to work together, to cooperate. Traveling for hours without too many fights, save for a couple verbal ones they had, but they were just squabbles in order to pass the time. Now, he had… glitched out? And sent Vennie packing in order to save herself from him.

 _Ah, the strange life of being a teenage mutant who grew up in a laboratory filled with scientists who poked and prodded at her._ She thought dryly. _It never ceases to surprise or confuse you, does it?_

She didn't know how long she was running, silently thinking to herself, when her hunger finally caught up to her, beginning to cramp her stomach as it plead loudly for food. Vennie at first ignored it, but when the cramps got worse and worse, and the rumbling even louder, she finally slowed to an easy walk.

It was more of a leisurely pace in order to balance out her workout with the fact she hadn't eaten for quite a few hours and her fast metabolism. That way, she didn't have to worry about her stomach bothering her too much until she found some place that might have food.

Thankfully, Vennie didn't have to walk for long, when a small truck stop appeared. She paused at a fast food restaurant, buying enough food for two starved men and wolfing it down in a matter of minutes, ignoring the incredulous looks the two other customers gave her. During her meal, she kept an eye on the TV, watching warily for any sign that L had been seen in his wolf state.

Nothing showed on the screens on him or her, which sent some alarms ringing in Vennie's mind. People would have uploaded things like that all over, which would be bound to get the attention of a screen. Yet there was nothing of them. Which meant someone was pulling the strings on it…

 _But why keep our identities safe?_ She wondered, frowning at the TV. Taking her empty wrappers, she threw them in the trash, deciding it was high time she went back to her journey. With her stomach full, she began once again at a run, not needing to worry about the food cramping her stomach the same way it did when she was hungry.

Time passed, and she finally made it home right when the sun was hidden behind the mountain, outlining it with a golden glow. Vennie had finally began making her way through the mountain, watching out for small markers she had left on trees to point her in the right direction. To others, they would have looked like something nature just did, chipping off pieces of bark or small scratches. But if someone were to look closer, they would find they were more man-made than they thought.

And following these clues, Vennie finally made her way back to the old, empty cabin.

Emphasis on the word "empty."

With rage, she grabbed some poor cup off of the counter, and threw it on the ground. It exploded into a flurry of shard, scraping across the wooden floor before finally settling all around. Vennie knew she'd have to pick the pieces up later. But in her anger, she couldn't bring herself to care. She stomped away, going to her room to see if she could find some way to communicate with them. She needed to know they were okay. She couldn't stand not knowing whether or not they were safe any longer.

The answer, thankfully, came in a small paper not in Liam's handwriting. But it only soothed her for mere moments.

 _Vennie, if you received this, then you got back home. The team is fine, and we're all safe. We drove up here, but decided that we were in danger in the area. We left. Now we're on our way to Baton Rouge. We're hoping no one will suspect we're heading that way. And we'll meet you there._

 _-Liam_

Did she feel relieved? Yes. Her team and family were safe. Was she happy they were gone? Nope. She now didn't know if they were safe in their journey. Vennie only had to hope and trust in their survival skills. And she did, but it didn't help she had such a big sister instinct towards them all.

She reread the note over and over again, her eyes trailing over the words _Baton Rouge._ That would be a long journey, too long to run or walk. That meant she'd have to hijack a car and hopefully not get into too many accidents. Vennie's heart hardened in determination. She would find her family, no matter what.

 _What about L?_ A nagging thought appeared, and she sighed, stepping back and sitting on her bed. She would give him until the end of the day, she decided. If he didn't appear by then, she would leave him and go out on her own.

Vennie, calmed now a decision had been made, stood up, heading to the kitchen to clean up the glass off of the floor. She swept it up before throwing it away, now feeling a little sheepish for destroying it in her rage.

That was definitely an embarrassing moment that would keep her up at night in the future. Those always seemed to pop up right when she was trying to looked out the window, watching as the sun began to set down to the earth, the sky darkening in its wake.

Vennie watched it for a bit, only stopping when her stomach growled, begging for food as a reward for the long trek she had made. She, after a moment, complied, walking to the fridge and making herself a hefty meal. The food would go to waste when she left, right? She might as well have ate it instead of letting it go to waste. Which meant she got to eat a _lot_ of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

After stuffing herself, she went to her room, almost falling into a food coma once she stumbled into bed. Vennie was prepared for a long, restful night's sleep. And was sound asleep halfway into the night.

That was until the door to the cabin suddenly swung open, with the form of L stepping through, before slamming the door shut.

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 **This story is still on hiatus! Read this please!**

 **I only wrote this because I only had to work on one page in order to finish the chapter. I had finished a chapter for my contest book, and was feeling really happy. So I finished this chapter up. Don't expect very much content for GP and SoH for a while.**


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